by T. A. White
There was something else there, gossamer-thin strands wrapped around his antlers, barely visible as they shifted in and out of sight.
I hurried over, looking closer. They weren’t just around his antlers. They were everywhere, the rest of his body as well. I’d missed it because they blended into his coat, thinner than any fishermen’s net or spiderweb.
Realization turned my insides cold. He was caught like all the rest, bound to Niamh’s bidding whether he wanted to be or not.
He looked over his shoulder at me, the odd blue eyes sorrowful as if he’d guessed exactly what I’d seen.
I stepped closer, lifting one hand to touch the strands, half-expecting the stag to shy away. He remained in place, allowing me to touch him without protest. My hand slid through the strands.
Magic, I’d learned, was formed by intent. Shaped by will and then molded by the universe. It was in everything we did, everything we were. In the big moments and the small ones.
Our perceptions influenced how we perceived it. When the sorcerer had taken my eye, it had done something, opened me up to a world that should have taken much longer to access. It left me exposed to possibilities but danger too.
Magic, especially of the type riding the night, was wild and unruly, as likely to burn you up as warm your bones. Mistreat it and it’d break you in half.
Stare too long into the abyss and you might lose yourself to the wonder and terror, the chaotic order.
I’d tried ignoring it, pretending it didn’t exist, and it’d gotten me nowhere except fleeing from the people who were my friends.
Time to change the story.
The stag, as if sensing what I was considering, stamped his hoof and lifted his head. He wanted this. Needed it.
“Will freeing you help us?” I asked him.
Normally, I would never consider it, but even if I made it to dawn, I would still be vulnerable. I didn’t trust Niamh would obey the rules of her people and let me live. Once the sun crossed that horizon, I would be vulnerable. There’d be nothing and no one to save me.
He moved his head in an up and down motion.
I’d take that as a yes.
“Alright, I’ll do my best,” I told him.
The world faded around me as I sank into the magic. This left me vulnerable. One of the hunters could approach andI’d never know it. Still, I’d rather go down trying than run until my heart burst and my feet were ragged, only to be shot down like some damn deer.
Niamh’s magic had a stranglehold on him. It delved deep into his essence, an insidious web burrowing where it had no business being. It sickened me. Her hold took violation to a whole new level.
It was a wonder he had any independent thought given how deeply her roots were embedded.
His power fluttered at the heart of it all. If I ever freed him, Niamh would need to watch out. His was a bottomless ocean, deep and cool.
I stared into it, losing myself for a moment as I admired its beauty before moving on.
This was no hasty construct like what had been on Hector. It had been reinforced and retooled countless times until there was no sign of weakness, no easy chink to exploit.
I pulled hard on it, calling threads of it to me, stopping when the stag let out a low sound of pain.
“This is going to take time,” I told him, fighting dizziness and a headache.
Time we didn’t necessarily have.
He grunted.
I prepared to dive deep. A creature stumbled out of the woods just then. It ran on all fours, its nose lifted to the air.
I couldn’t say what it was, though it looked vaguely like a wolf, a coat as dark as night and vivid green eyes in a face that was a cross between canine and human.
It lifted its snout to the air and bayed. Answering cries sounded from far off in the distance.
Our time was up. For now.
The stag and I leapt down the small bank of the tracks, abandoning them in favor of the shadowy protection of the forest. Now that we’d been spotted, staying on them was impossible.
Without the iron to dilute it, the magic of the hunt rose with the force of an inexorable tide.
We ran, the sound of pursuit hard on our heels. On the rare instances where we stopped to catch a breath, I worked on the stag’s bindings, pulling and plucking any chance I could. My success was minor to say the least. The webbing gave just the slightest bit every time.
He helped as much as he could, pushing when I pulled, but even several hours later, I was still no closer to freeing him, and my reserves were at their limit.
I staggered against a tree, clutching it to keep myself upright as I panted. All around us we could hear the hunters. They were closing in. It wouldn’t be long now.
Worse, I was losing time, the magic catching me in its grip for long periods and carrying me off—the forest passing by in flashes as my world spiraled down to survival and running, terror and fear my constant companions.
“Come here,” I said.
If I was going to free him, it had to be now. I didn’t know if I’d get another shot. No reason we both should die.
He bowed his head before me, resignation in every line. He knew better than I did what our odds were. In this, we were in complete agreement, without a word having been exchanged.
This time I reached deep, summoning that rarely-used power inside, using it to grab the webbing and rip. When I ran out of power I reached deeper, ignoring the throbbing pain in my head or the parts of me that were screaming I was doing too much.
Desperation lent me strength. The bonds were looser than when I started, weaker from all my previous attempts.
From some unknown place inside me, power sparked, giving me a glimpse of what I could do, what I could be given half the chance. Suddenly, reading the magic on the stag was as easy as child’s play, a map I’d been born to decipher.
I bore down with my magic, hitting the spell with everything I had left. It crumpled, wisping away like cobwebs.
The stag reared, knocking me down as he screamed a challenge.
Before I could react, he took off, disappearing into the night without a backward glance.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
I pushed myself off the ground, weak and dizzy. Using whatever that power had been, had knocked out the last of my reserves.
And here I’d thought freeing the stag would help me. Turned out it’d had the opposite effect.
I rolled into a depression in the ground, hoping the small spot would shield me from view while I caught my breath, or at least until I summoned enough willpower to stand.
The night was a hazy gray against the darker shapes of the trees, the stars stretched out, so numerous they were infinite.
I didn’t know how long I lay there, too tired to move, before a set of purple wings fluttered into view.
Inara landed on my nose, glaring down at me with hands on her hips. “Get up, you lazy fanger. I haven’t invested this much time into your survival to watch you give up when you’re so close to freedom.”
My tongue felt thick in my mouth. “What are you talking about?”
“Get up and survive this and I just might tell you,” she snarled.
With Inara pulling at the sensitive parts of me and bitching the entire time, I somehow managed to make it to my feet. For a creature no taller than the length of my hand, she could be surprisingly persistent. Her vicious pinches on my ear and nose kept me moving when I would have faltered.
A blue streak flew by, Lowen’s expression frantic. “They’re coming.”
Sure enough, the sounds of the hunt grew frighteningly close.
Inara cursed.
“You two should go,” I said.
They weren’t part of the hunt. I could feel it. If they left now they would be fine. Stay and they risked getting caught up in this.
“No, you just need to reach the road,” Inara said.
My laugh was grim. “I don’t think that’s how it works. It’s not some magic boundary to keep th
em off my back.”
“No, it’s where Caroline waits in a car. You’ll be much faster in that than you will be on foot,” Inara said flatly.
I couldn’t help the disbelief that filled me.
“Why would Caroline be there?”
Inara fluttered in front of me, seeming unconcerned despite the rumble of a threat in my voice. “I called her and told her where to meet us.”
“You did what?” I couldn’t help the upset in my voice.
“Don’t start with me,” she snapped. “You were supposed to stop the hunt. Not start it.”
“You didn’t want Niall or Cadell hunted. I’d say I accomplished that,” I shot back.
And boy had I. Maybe I’d done my job a little too well. I’d seen them out here with me, brief glimpses, but it was clear they’d been caught in the same web I had, only they were hunters, not the hunted.
I think one of them had even shot an arrow at me.
“Argue with me when you’re safe,” she snarled, weaving in and out of the trees as she led me through the forest.
She had a point. After that, I didn’t have time to argue as magic clamped me in its jaws once again, sending me mindlessly fleeing, the forest a blur around me as I ran.
Jerry rose from between the trees, his face blank as he raised an ax. I veered away, my heart thundering in my throat as I embraced my instincts, letting them guide me, even as others stepped out of the shadows.
They were herding me, the net growing close.
Dawn and hope lingered on the horizon. The stars above were gradually shuttering their faces and taking the moon with them.
I found myself on my hands and knees panting as the magic eased. It was like the ocean, pulling back only to swamp me with another wave. For the moment though, I was myself again.
Inara alighted on the ground in front of me, concern on her face. “You need to stop letting it take over.”
“That’s easy for you to say,” I told her. “You’re not the one caught in its grip.”
And I was so tired of fighting it. At least when it took me, I forgot the terror that crouched inside, forgot that many of my former friends were part of the hunt and would be only too glad to end me.
“How much further?” I asked.
Inara looked grim. “More than a mile.”
“Still?”
We were no closer than the last time I asked. I couldn’t help wondering if she’d lied to me.
When I was human, my best time was a mile in just under seven minutes. Now, exhausted, having been running off and on for half the night, I’d be lucky if I could run a mile at all.
“Yes, still. You keep going the wrong way,” she hissed, seeming like her old self. I was glad to see it. This morose woman wasn’t Inara. At least I knew what I was getting with the grumpy version.
“I can’t help it. The magic grabs me and I just run,” I said.
She didn’t look appeased. “You’re a magic breaker. You control its pull, not the other way around.”
I lifted my head at that. “Magic breaker?”
She rolled her eyes. “Yes, what do you think you’ve been doing all this time? You can see the magic, and break it if you wish.”
I opened my mouth in question, but the magic grabbed me in its jaws. This time I did as she suggested and resisted. It was like trying to hold back an avalanche, my attempts puny and ineffectual.
Somehow, I managed to retain enough of a sense of self to allow Inara to point me toward the highway and the promise of safety.
Creatures bayed. They were frighteningly close.
Still, I ran, my feet thudding against the ground, tree branches whipping past me. I paid the toll for my passage with blood as their sharp edges left small cuts along my arms and face.
I knew I was leaving a trail a mile wide, but I didn’t have time to go softly or quietly. They were too close now.
Whatever advantage the change in my diet had given me was long gone. Exhaustion dragged at me, whispering of a respite from all this.
I pressed on, neither the magic nor my own will permitting me to falter.
I became aware of something shadowing me, catching glimpses of someone running parallel to me. They moved impossibly fast, following when I tried to veer away.
Liam. I’d know him anywhere.
I was acutely aware of the hunter even when the trees shielded him from view, his presence growing until it felt like a thousand shadows weighing me down.
He was playing with me, toying with me as I tried to escape his trap.
The road was in sight and I felt hope leap inside my chest.
Liam flew out of the trees, tackling me to the ground. I hit hard, the breath knocked out of me.
He crouched over me, the hunter in truth, no trace of the lover from last night. His face was just blank. If he hadn’t had Liam’s face and Liam’s scent, I would have said he was a stranger.
My eyes widened, fear catching me in its grip as Liam raised his hand, an old blade in his hand.
Death had come, wearing Liam’s form. He was the reaper and angel of death rolled into one. Old magic was in the air, the kind that tasted of the past, of old gods and things best forgotten.
The blade began to descend and I braced for pain, even as I reached for the magic wrapping him in Niamh’s will.
Inara had called me a magic breaker. In that split second when death loomed, I embraced it, pulling with everything in me.
The magic came away easily, its weaving looser and more uneven than the stag’s. It hadn’t had the time to burrow as deep. Darkness crowded into the edges of my vision as small tendrils from the deepest parts of me, the ones that were my essence spiraled up, sucking down the spell around Liam.
The dagger hesitated for just an instant, Liam’s face horrified.
He started to mouth my name but never finished it, his eyes wild. The stag barreled into him, his coat glowing like a mini-sun as he trumpeted a challenge.
Then I saw nothing as I lost the battle against myself, sinking gratefully into unconsciousness.
*
Tight arms around me and tears soaking my shirt accompanied me into wakefulness. A chest shook under me.
I opened my eyes, staring up at a ravaged face. Liam looked like he’d just lost his whole world, a wild grief making him slightly crazed.
“It looks like you were only slightly successful in putting the vampire in your thrall,” Arlan remarked as he glided out of the trees.
The magic of the hunt still snapped and crackled in the air, though considerably lessened. It clung to him, speaking of wild, untamed things. He didn’t just look at home here, with the trees around him and the first of the sun’s rays kissing the horizon. He looked like he was born of this place, as integral to it as the trees or land might be.
This wasn’t something peaceful or calming. He was wild and fierce, the darker side of nature, the one that relied on death for the circle of life.
Niamh stepped out behind him, a dissatisfied expression on her face at the sight of Liam clinging to me as if he’d lost the only important thing in his life.
Her gaze lifted to the stag, standing close by, and her lips curled in a snarl. Her expression was incandescent with rage.
Arlan began to laugh when he caught sight of the stag, his shoulders shaking as the sound boomed out of him.
“That’s impossible,” Niamh snarled.
“Evidently not,” Arlan said, sounding amused. For being her husband, he seemed awfully elated to see Niamh so upset.
Not a happy marriage between those two, I was guessing.
Liam hadn’t reacted to their presence, still rocking me back and forth, looking lost.
“Her death should have cemented my hold,” Niamh said.
I realized the two didn’t realize I was still alive. Granted, I felt about two steps away from death, my body bruised and beaten, but the pain told me I was still very much among the living.
I remained very still, afraid to call attenti
on to myself.
“That it hasn’t, means you are unable to deliver on your promise to put the vampires in this territory under your hold,” Arlan said. “What will your master say?”
“Shut it, wildling.” Her voice was nasty as she glared at him. “I have not lost yet.”
Niamh moved closer to us, her gaze locked on Liam’s bowed head. I debated what to do, whether it was better to show my hand or remain still, faking a death she was sure to see through.
I decided to stay pliant in Liam’s tight grip. Dawn wasn’t far. The sun was minutes away from cresting the horizon. The hunt was all but at an end.
Liam’s head lifted, his gaze locking on Niamh’s. “You did this.”
The rage in his voice was enough to make me flinch. Any sensible person would have fled.
The skin on his face had thinned, releasing the monster I’d only caught the briefest glimpses of. My heart gave a painful thump. Even knowing that look wasn’t intended for me, it was hard not to react.
It wasn’t just anger there. No, he was every god of wrath and revenge given form. Almost primal, as he looked fiercely at Niamh with the kind of emotion I hadn’t thought he’d ever feel for me.
He didn’t just want her dead. He wanted to bathe in her blood, to draw out her ending and make it as long and painful as possible.
To her credit, she didn’t flinch. Instead, her smile turned seductive as she brushed her hair back from her face.
A glint of purple and blue shimmered from above.
Lowen and Inara looked down at her, their small bodies making their way along the branches as they shadowed her.
I didn’t know what they had planned, but from their furtive movements and the snarl on Inara’s face, I didn’t think it would be good.
Still, I waited, even as the Wild Hunt’s magic called the rest of the hunters to the clearing.
Jerry stepped out of trees, his big body surprisingly graceful for such a large man. Ruth and Harry followed, along with several other Fae. Their gazes were all locked on the stag, and me in Liam’s arms.
Arlan had a thoughtful look on his face as he glanced around. He looked from me to Liam, cocking his head as he considered. He shut his eyes and breathed in. They popped open, gleaming with surprise and something that looked like awe.
